Yet another 3 season gear list

Since you're bringing the caldera caddy: mark your caddy for use as a measuring cup.

I also have a limited budget, so I try to imagine what I can drop, rather than how I can save 2 oz by spending $200. With that in mind:

-What are the 4 stuff sacks for? – if one is for food, and the other is for odds & ends, you could probably lose the other 2.

-Rain pants – are you expecting really cold temps? I can't stand hiking in rain pants, and they seem unnecessary and heavy.

-I would just have one bottle for the alcohol – one 12 oz bottle will weigh less, and a disposable PET bottle should be fine for this duration.

-definitely drop the measuring cup

-I would substitute the camera bag with a 5×4 Aloksak – they're relatively cheap and will actually protect the camera better against water – the real enemy.

-I don't know what the wallet consists of, but is it more than a credit card, ID and cash?

– I feel like you could get away with light toothbrush and past. I hacked my brush down to .4 oz, and you could try the Clelland paste dots.

-2 48 oz canteens seems like overkill.

Thanks for the comments so far.

@John… You just rocked my world! There goes 0.8 oz. I knew the caddy wasn't useless.

@Devin. I'm glad I'm not the only cheapskate ;)

-The wallet does consist of just cash and a few cards in an aloksak.

-The rain pants… that is a good point. I was going to use them for town pants as well as during rain, but I could easily drop them. Would you ever use wind pants instead? I wonder if I might look at those for future use in cooler temps (not this trip, though. No more spending!)

-1 alcohol bottle should be easy.

-I'll look into the toothbrush and toothpaste dots.

-For the camera case, part of the reason I like it is the belt-loop for quick access. I just found a smaller case for 4 bucks at Reny's, though, so I might try that out and save an ounce or so. As for protecting it from water, we'll see.

-As for the stuff sacks, I usually use two stuff sacks for food (one for snacks during the day and one that I don't have to access as often). Two stuff sacks for odds & ends and organization. I may cut that down, too, since 4 was an arbitrary decision.

-The canteens… I'm wicked paranoid about running out of water, and I like to have lots in the evening for when I'm in camp. One of those canteens will certainly be empty all day except when I know there's no good water source soon. Although, if I do a few weekend trips to test the water system out, I may drop one and replace it with a soda bottle.

I'll edit the list in a bit… any other ideas? I like what I'm seeing so far!

>>I'll be taking this gear on one or two test trips in Massachusetts in late April with minor changes.

Rain or wind pants — I did a Massachusetts AT section hike in late April last year. I used wind pants, and wished I had brought rain pants instead. My wind pants wet through after a few hours of heavy, wind-blown rain.

I also used my long underwear several nights in my sleeping bag, and wore my liner gloves several cold mornings…

John, you're definitely right. We had a torrential downpour here the other night, and it reminded me why staying dry in New England while camping is pretty important. Definitely keeping the rain pants, although I could ditch the long underwear for the same weight savings. I think I'll have to do a little experimenting on my next test trip.

I just updated the list above to reflect getting rid of one stuff sack and the measuring cup, and switching a soda bottle for one of the nalgene canteens, a lighter camera case for my old one (a case for a larger camera I used to have), and a soda bottle for the two alcohol bottles.

That puts me below 10 pounds, but not by much. Any more advice? Thanks!

pocketknife – – – – – – – (?) more details, please.

MEC Scout silnylon tarp w/ guy-lines and stuff sack (14.3) – – – – – – – Nix the stuff sack. Put the wet tarp in your backpack first, and then put the trash compactor bag (with the sleeping bag) in on top. The important stuff will stay dry.

Patagonia wool 3 bottoms (7.6)
Sierra Designs Elevation rain pants (7.8) – – – – – – – What are you wearing? You hiking outfit? (just curious) THe layering is hard to understand without knowing CLOTHING WORN.

Use a light camera case, and just put the camera in a plastic bag inside the case for water-proofing.

Add a red squirt lid for the alcohol soda bottle. THis makes pouring MUCH easier. Steal one from a Shriratcha HOT sauce bottle (spelling?)

cell phone & car keys (4.6) – – – – – – – Hide the keys near the car somewhere, no need to cary them.

toilet paper (2.5) – – – – – – – – Liberating yourself from toilet paper is easier than you think!

aqua mira drops (2.9) – – – – – – – Re-Package in BPL mini-dropper bottles.

Antigravitygear Pot Cozy (1.0) – – – – – – – You'll be fine without this, a luxury item if you need to "cook" food by letting it sit and stay warm, just use your hat.

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48oz Nalgene canteen (2.3)
1L soda bottle (approx 1.2) – – – – – – – Why so much water storage?

– You wrote:

"The canteens… I'm wicked paranoid about running out of water, and I like to have lots in the evening for when I'm in camp."

You are describing the ingrained habits of a TRADITIONAL camper. You have an ultra light set-up, under 10 pounds BASE weight. Don't mix the two!

Eat dinner on the trail at a water source, then hike AFTER EATING 'til it gets dark. Camp with just a liter or so. Get up in the morning an hike until you get to a water source, and then EAT breakfast. Easy!

You've got me there, Mike. I'm a closet TRADITIONAL camper. Well, the first step to recovery is…. switching to trail runners?

I just posted my "worn clothing" above, although none of it is weighed yet. It's as light as I want it to be (aside from the poles, which I hope to replace eventually). I'm thinking that I will most likely drop the long underwear from the carried clothes list, though.

Pocket knife is a Swiss army classic. I think it's about .7 or .8 oz.

Toilet paper, as I said I'll be trying TP-less, but having the backup for the first few trips might be good for… uh… emergencies. I know it's easy (the 3 month NOLS course without TP was fine and dandy), so I think it'll only take one test trip before I ditch the paper.

Aqua Mira– I was going to repackage the drops, then I got a little suspicious about how many drops would be required per liter, and how many liters I could treat with two minidroppers full of parts A & B. A 7 day trip with about a gallon of water a day would mean I'd need about 28 doses of aqua mira (let's just assume I treat all of my water). I'll check and see how much fits into those minidroppers when I get back to my house.

As for the other suggestions, sounds good. Can't wait to get out for a weekend later this month to test some things!

> Eat dinner on the trail at a water source, then hike AFTER EATING 'til it gets dark. Camp
> with just a liter or so. Get up in the morning an hike until you get to a water source,
> and then EAT breakfast. Easy!

Well, not always. It depends on the country. For instance:
Lunch on river – plenty of water.
Camp on mountain top: +700 m, 30 C, NO water anywhere nearby.
Follow ridge till lunchtime next day – 30 C, NO water.

Been there, done that, great campsite (well, we found enough space to fit the tent!), fantastic dawn, but I would have been *very* thirsty without lots more than 1 L of water leaving the river.

Always a problem, how much water to carry. Inadequate storage capacity can be a serious problem in many areas though, so I don't mind erring on the safe side. This sport IS meant to be enjoyed, after all.

Cheers

The Catskills in New York state are loaded with water.

"Aqua Mira– I was going to repackage the drops, then I got a little suspicious about how many drops would be required per liter, and how many liters I could treat with two minidroppers full of parts A & B. A 7 day trip with about a gallon of water a day would mean I'd need about 28 doses of aqua mira (let's just assume I treat all of my water). I'll check and see how much fits into those minidroppers when I get back to my house."

-Figure out how many drops you will need and count as you repackage. I believe there are several sizes of droppers available, find the size you need for your 8 day trip. Maybe others can chime in and give suggestions here.

-If it looks like you are running low on Aqua Mira towards the end of the trip you can boil some water assuming you have a little extra fuel.

Matti

Finally got around to testing the BPL Mini droppers with the Aqua Mira last night. The approximate capacity for a mini dropper is 150 drops from the original Aqua Mira droppers, so two mini droppers (parts A and B) will treat about 21 liters. Not quite enough, but the weight of those two droppers is 0.45 oz. I'm leaning toward taking two sets of mini droppers, since both of them full would weigh about 1.8 oz, a savings of just over 1 oz from the full droppers.

Also, I'm switching my water carrying capacity to a 1 L soda bottle and a 1 L platypus. Maybe still more than necessary, but I'm beginning to see Mike's point.

I'll update the list above in a few minutes. Also, will be doing a single night trip this weekend to test some of this stuff out.

Three little cartoons are from the book LIGHTEN UP! by Don Ladigin. These drawings explain a lightweight camping techniques for eating on the trail (instead of in camp) and setting up a stealth campsite out of view of other backcountry use. This is all a lot easier with a light backpack.

This solves the concerns about "DRY" camping, because there is NO need to camp near a water sourse.

I never could get the stop and eat dinner and then continue on to camp thing. Where there are mosquitos, I need my tent to hide from them. Plus once I stop I get really lazy. I'm also conditioned by so many years of my local Los Padres area where we've always hiked from camp to camp.

I hope to fix this habit. Perhaps eating at 4 instead of 6 would help.